Ferrari and Mercedes managed to post sub-80-second lap times today despite cold weather conditions at the Circuit de Catalunya. However both are yet to post quicker times than they managed either in last year’s test or in the Spanish Grand Prix at the same track.
However some of their rivals have already shown early signs of year-on-year gains.
How much quicker are they than last year?
Equipped with a set of Pirelli’s new hyper-soft tyres, Stoffel Vandoorne produced a lap time in the McLaren-Renault which was over a second faster than the McLaren-Honda managed in the same test 12 months ago.
McLaren are outliers in that most of the other teams set their best times so far on tyres that were at least three stages softer (softs) or hour (mediums, as in the case of Mercedes).
Force India did more representative running today with Esteban Ocon at the wheel. However Haas, as Guenther Steiner explained, has had a frustrating start to the test which is reflected in the fact they haven’t got within two seconds of their best time from 12 months ago.
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Mileage watch
While the big teams are concentrating on mileage the presence of Toro Rosso among the top three must bring some cheer to power unit supplier Honda. Particularly as they’ve covered almost twice as much ground as former Honda users McLaren, who are once again rooted to the bottom of the mileage table after a second disrupted day.
2018 pre-season testing so far
| Team | Distance |
|---|---|
| Ferrari | 828.6km |
| Mercedes | 823.9km |
| Toro Rosso | 814.6km |
| Williams | 810km |
| Red Bull | 800.7km |
| Renault | 763.4km |
| Sauber | 670.3km |
| Force India | 470.2km |
| Haas | 423.6km |
| McLaren | 409.6km |
2017 pre-season testing total
| Team | Distance |
|---|---|
| Mercedes | 5101.9km |
| Ferrari | 4445.5km |
| Williams | 3724km |
| Sauber | 3663.5km |
| Force India | 3654.2km |
| Red Bull | 3184km |
| Haas | 3170.1km |
| Renault | 2774.4km |
| Toro Rosso | 2718.5km |
| McLaren | 2127.3km |
2018 F1 season
- McLaren staff told us we were “totally crazy” to take Honda engines in 2018 – Tost
- ‘It doesn’t matter if we start last’: How Red Bull’s junior team aided Honda’s leap forward
- Honda’s jet division helped F1 engineers solve power unit problem
- McLaren Racing losses rise after Honda split
- Ricciardo: Baku “s***show” was Red Bull’s fault
Jere (@jerejj)
28th February 2018, 3:18
Just beat the damn outright lap record already, LOL.
Todfod (@todfod)
28th February 2018, 5:25
I think Mclaren’s time was just a glory run on hypersofts. You can’t read much in to their progress at all. They haven’t even done a long run yet on soft or mediums yet to get a comparison of what their real performance is.
It’s hard to read in to any of the times posted over the past 2 days. The only thing I feel slightly sure of is Renault’s progress. My guess is that they’ve taken a good step forward.
Baron (@baron)
28th February 2018, 9:35
Glory run? Yes, of course it was. They have all the data they need. Let’s do a glory run.
jenc (@jens)
28th February 2018, 12:19
So good to see stability from Honda.
Shimks (@shimks)
28th February 2018, 16:45
Erm…
Shimks (@shimks)
28th February 2018, 16:40
Wonderful colour scheme!